UFC 104 Preview: Ryan Bader, Eric Schafer Meet in Potential Slugfest
Arizona Combat Sports fighter and The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 winner Ryan "Darth" Bader (9-0) will battle Eric "Red" Schafer (11-3-2) in a light heavyweight tilt on UFC 104's free SpikeTV portion of the undercard on Saturday night. Bader will enter the contest following a complete drubbing of wrestler Carmelo Marrero at UFN 18 and a first round beatdown of The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 runner-up Vinny Magalhaes. Schafer is currently on a two-fight win streak with victories over former UFC fighter Antonio Mendes and returning brawler Houston Alexander.
There isn't much analysis that needs to be said in this match-up. Schafer's Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills on the ground coupled with his boxing/Muay Thai skills will be pitted against Bader's size, strength, wrestling pedigree, and power punching. It could almost be said that this is a similar fight to Schafer's encounter with Michael Bisping at middleweight due to the surrounding storyline of the up-and-comer battling the veteran. Bisping's gameplan in their bout back at UFC 66 is probably a road that Bader will want to travel. Bisping's power punching and takedown defense proved to be the key to demolishing Schafer, and Bader could easily implement that same gameplan at UFC 104.
It's hard not to like Schafer though. He's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Henry Matamoros and Pedro Sauer, his heroes include "Chuck F'n Norris", and he has a bachelors in Biology/Chemistry. Smart, witty, and dangerous on the floor. Being a likable guy goes a long way with fans, but winning this fight is going to be a challenge. As Bader has pointed out, he'll likely try to maintain his feet and work his power punching on Schafer, something Schafer has succumbed to in the past. Schafer will need to show some improvement in this bout if he wants to put Bader into any danger.
This fight will come down to the striking game as both men feel they'll nullify each other on the floor, and on paper -- Schafer has the advantage in experience. The only problem with that assumption, however, is that Bader's punching can effectively end his opponent's evening in one shot. Schafer has talked about his years of training in boxing and Muay Thai over the experience that Bader has in those departments, but we could have easily said the same thing in the Bisping bout.
Schafer has Patrick Barry, Razaak Al-Hassan, and Ben Rothwell at his camp training for all of their fights respectively along with each other, so we'll see if he can train his striking enough to give Bader a run for his money. In my eyes, this is Bader's fight to lose on the feet. I'll be a bit amazed if we see both men simply bang it out, but from their pre-fight interviews throughout the blogosphere -- it looks like that's exactly what they intend to do.
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I lol'd at
Bisping’s power punching
But srsly, Bader probably takes this unless Schafer can get it to the mat. His standup skills have never impressed me a bit. His jits, however… top notch
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Bisping had power punching in the Schafer fight. Today, he’s more of a peppering boxer.
It’s just interesting the way this is being sold now. Schafer should try to take down Bader, but it sounds like he believe he can outstrike him.
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by Leland Roling on Oct 21, 2009 3:39 PM EDT up reply actions
I wouldn't call it 'power punching'
perse. Bisping won that fight with a series of punches from standing above Schafer’s guard, but he’s always had very good (almost Fedor- esque) GnP, where he stands up from the guard and throws bombs. But even then, the punches are more dangerous because of their accuracy, not their power.
And standing… sure, he caught Schafer with a couple good shots, but the only strike he landed standing that really even rattled Eric was the lead head kick. The one thing that seems to be lacking from Bisping’s game is power in his punches, which could be partially because of the peppering thing that you talk about, that he doesn’t commit too much to 1 strike, but I really do think that he just has feathers in his fists.
Nothing against The Count either, just an observation. Some guys (like Page, Fedor, BJ, Lawler, Chuck in his heyday) naturally have power, and other guys (Bisping, Velasquez, etc) just don’t hit very hard. Alot of it has to do with the athleticism and mobility of the fighter’s hips
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by ElliotMatheny on Oct 21, 2009 7:44 PM EDT up reply actions
He’s basically stated he doesn’t want to go to the floor with a BJJ black belt, and that he’ll try to stand, and Schafer seems very reluctant to be top controlled by Bader. It sets up the potential for a slugfest.
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by Leland Roling on Oct 21, 2009 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions
This is where I'm at
I don’t know if it’s because I LIKE Red or that I DISLIKE Bader… There’s really no reason for me to dislike him, but I find myself rooting against him when he fights.
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Yeah, I remember you saying that
I never got that impression, he always seemed like the typical fun loving meathead, not someone I’d love to run into, but not a bad guy either.
Schafer’s just one of my favorite fighters. I know he’ll never get the title, but I still root for him every time, ESPECIALLY after he beat Houston, that was great
Bader by lay and pray decision is the most likely scenario. Bader tries to stand, Schafer gets tagged, tries to get it to the ground, Bader scrambles and gets on top, body-body-head until the round finishes. Repeat.
This is a pretty good assessment of how I think things should go. Schafer will try to slug it out at the beginning, but I think he’ll get tagged and have to resort to a miracle try at getting Bader down to which he’ll be stuffed and subsequently put on his back while tired.
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by Leland Roling on Oct 21, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions

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